Since a base game update brought out to coincide with the High School Years Expansion, your Sims can develop a range of fears in The Sims 4. Just as in real life, these fears can have negative effects on your Sims’ day-to-day lives. They can be a pain, but they can also be banished. You should know exactly what fears your Sims can get in The Sims 4 and how they get them. More importantly, you can learn how to get rid of them, so your Sims are fear-free.
Note that some of the fears listed in this guide are only available if you have the High School Years Expansion.
Conquering Fears
Before we get started on looking into every individual fear, let’s go over the process of conquering fears. You can only conquer a fear if it is currently active. You can find this out by looking in the Traits panel under Simology. Listed with your Sims other traits, you’ll see your Sim’s current fears, specially highlighted in red to make them stand out. You’ll see the name of the fear, such as Fear of Death, and the accompanying icon image, such as the Grim Reaper. If you hover over the fear trait, you can find out in more detail what this fear is about and how it may affect your Sim.
While a fear is active, your Sim will generally become Uncomfortable, Tense or even Scared when faced with their fear. For example, a Sim who has a Fear of the Dark will become Scared when they go outside at night. They’ll feel better when they go back inside into the light.
Active fears will appear in the Traits panel.
In order to banish a fear, the Sim with the cheat active must perform one or a few tasks. Some tasks may have to be repeated before the fear goes away. The tasks must be performed by the Sim who has the fear. For example, if the fear is Being Cheated On, the Sim’s partner cannot be the one to initiate the Talk about Relationship Fears interaction. In order to rid of the fear, it must be done by the Sim with the fear active.
In order to initiate a fear-banishing quest, you must first wait for the task to appear in the Wants and Fears panel above your Sim’s portrait (formerly known as the Whims panel). The Fear wish looks like a Want thought bubble, but all jagged instead. Even with a fear active, these tasks won’t always appear. You’ll therefore have to wait for your Sim’s cue to deal with their fear head-on, even if you’re ready. Without the fear wish present, the task required to conquer the fear won’t be available. For example, if your Sim has a Fear of a Dead-End Job, the Regain Passion self-interaction won’t be available until the related fear wish appears.
Special fear wishes appear while a fear is active. Successfully completing these leads to fears being conquered.
Once a fear has been conquered, the fear trait will disappear from the Traits panel. Also, as a reward, your Sim will get a powerful Confident Moodlet from overcoming their fear. This Moodlet lasts for 12 in-game hours!
Note that Sims can have multiple fears at one time. It’s also important to note that with multiple fears active, only one fear “quest task” will appear at a time in the Wants and Fears panel, and this is chosen at random by the game.
Successfully overcoming a fear is a great feeling and a real confidence booster for your Sims.
With that all said, it’s time to find out how you deal with every individual fear in The Sims 4.
Being Cheated On
No Sim wants to be cheated on. This fear can come with being in a relationship with another Sim. The relationship status can be anything, including boyfriend/girlfriend, engaged, or married. So long as your Sim is “with” someone, they can get a fear of being cheated on.
Don’t be fooled by the fear’s official title. It doesn’t have to be triggered by your Sim actually being cheated on by their partner. This fear is usually triggered if a couple haven’t been interacting much recently, particularly romantically. It can also come on if your Sims have a bad WooHoo session. These two things can cause their relationship to be questioned.
Your Sim can put their mind and fear at ease by speaking to their partner and using the interaction Talk about Relationship Fears. This can be found under the Romantic socials. Note that it’s not likely to work after just one use of this special interaction. Your Sim may have to Talk about Relationship Fears a few times before the fear truly goes away, to properly rid of any lingering doubts.
Couples without romantic interaction for a while can become paranoid. Get them to speak up about their fears to clear the air.
Being Judged
People don’t like being judged, and neither do Sims. This particular fear is brought on whenever another Sim acts unkindly towards them, using Mean interactions. This leads to your Sim feeling paranoid.
To get over this fear, your Sim needs to face it, or more specifically the Sim that started it. You’ll unlock a unique interaction, Figure Out Differences. Doing this should allow your Sim to overcome their fear and move on. If it fails, you can try again.
Being judged by others isn’t a nice feeling. This can be fixed by the Sims working out their differences.
Cowplant
Cowplants are an icon of The Sims series, along with gnomes, freezer bunnies, and llamas. However, not all Sims are fans of this strange living plant/animal hybrid. If your Sim has a nasty encounter with a cowplant – getting swallowed by one and spat out – this fear will appear.
Your Sims don’t have to be afraid of cowplants forever. If you want them to get over their fear, make them Confident and get them to successfully milk a cowplant. Milking is available after a cowplant devours a Sim, but you can also milk it if your Sim was eaten and then spat out. This means you can deal with this fear quickly, providing the fear wish appears promptly. With the milking successfully completed, the cowplant shouldn’t scare your Sim anymore.
(Video by Vore in Media)
Crowded Places
Sims can become overwhelmed by crowded places and even develop a fear of them. Places where you can expect to see lots of Sims include parties, social events, and festivals. Some community lots can also get quite busy. Basically, anywhere that isn’t quiet makes your Sim nervous.
Fortunately, your Sim can overcome their overwhelming fears of crowded places. To make themselves feel better, they can perform interactions under the Funny socials on Sims in busy places. Try out socials such as jokes and telling amusing stories. They’ll soon forget their fear.
Don’t let your Sims feel overwhelmed by busy places. Get a few jokes going to make their worries go away.
The Dark
The dark can be a scary place, and for some Sims, it’s their worst fear. A Fear of the Dark is normally triggered by bad encounters at night. Such negative experiences can include an alarming run-in with a supernatural being, including vampires. Alien abductions can also trigger fears of the dark. If you have the Parenthood Game Pack, children who are rudely awoken by a monster under their bed can also develop a fear of the dark.
Having a fear of the dark can be a pain if your Sim has to go out at night. To successfully banish this fear, your Sim must go out during the night while Confident. This can prove to be tricky, as the Fear of the Dark Moodlet that your Sim gets is a powerful one, but it’s not impossible to overcome.
Monsters under a child’s bed is one way to trigger a fear of the dark.
A Dead-End Job
Sometimes, Sims can feel as if their job isn’t going anywhere. They start to question whether their current job is right for them. That’s what this fear is all about.
This fear comes about if your Sim is in a career and hasn’t received a promotion in a while. The career in question can be anything; full-time or part-time, active or non-active or partly active. This fear seems to come on quite easily. Your Sim can go a day since their last promotion and get this fear. Then again, time does work differently in The Sims 4 than in real-life, so a in-game day probably seems a lot longer to your Sims.
Sims who are stressed at work can develop a fear of a dead-end job.
If you want to reassure your Sim and help them get rid of this fear, there’s something you need to do before you send your Sim off to work. Sims with the Dead-End Job fear have a special self-interaction called Regain Passion. By using this, your Sim instantly becomes Confident for several hours.
It’s advised that if you want to banish your career fear, do it within the hour before your Sim goes off to work, regardless of whether it’s active or not. You want your Sim to go off in a fresh positive mood, and you want it to last for their whole work shift. If you do it too early, say several hours before they’re due to go to work, the booster might only last into the first hour before wearing off, and the fear may not go away. You want your Sim to be totally Confident and ready for another day at work, and ready to rid of their fear.
Send your Sims to work with renewed passion and confidence.
Death
The fear of dying is a big one. Lots of people are afraid of what happens after we stop living, particularly when our time is coming to an end. It can happen to your Sims as well.
This fear usually arises when your Sim becomes an Elder. Other Sims can get this fear also, if they witness a loved one passing on, whether from old age or an accident.
Conquering the fear of death is pretty straightforward. You just need to speak to another Sim with the interaction Talk about Fear of Death. You may need to do this a few times before your Sim is truly happy. Also, if this fear is coming from an Elder Sim concerned about their looming end, they need to talk to another Elder Sim. Fear of Death can also go away if you give the Grim Reaper a Death Flower.
Death can be frightening for some Sims, including Elders in the last stage of their life. Talk it out to make them feel better.
The Grim Reaper and Death Flower
The second option for conquering the fear of death is by giving the Grim Reaper a Death Flower, something that requires a bit of work. Let’s walk through how to, a: find the Grim Reaper, and b: get a Death Flower.
Grim Reaper
The Grim Reaper normally only appears whenever a Sim dies. Sims can die from a multitude of ways, but the most common is old age. Sims can have accidents though, although they are not very common. Common accidental deaths include starvation (the Hunger Need meter hitting rock bottom), drowning (Energy hitting zero while swimming), and burning (getting caught on fire and not getting extinguished before all Needs get severely low).
When the Reaper appears, his main job is dealing with the recently departed. He sticks around for quite a while, but not all day, so if you want to interact with him, you’d better get a move on. You’ll have to wait until after he’s finished his main duty of taking care of the deceased Sim. After that, he’ll stick around for a bit, watching TV, playing music, or having a drink, before he goes on his way.
The Grim Reaper usually only appears when a Sim dies, and he won’t stick around all day.
Death Flower
Now for the Death Flower. Getting a hold of one of these is not easy. The Death Flower is probably the rarest flower in The Sims 4. However, getting your hands on one is not impossible. It requires some work – and a level 5 in Gardening – but if you follow the right instructions, you’ll soon have one.
Producing a Death Flower is a bit of a process, but it can be broken down into a few steps:
- Graft a Cherry to an Apple to produce a Pomegranate. A Gardening skill of level 5 is required because Grafting is only available from this level.
- Graft a Lily to a Snapdragon to produce an Orchid.
- With the Pomegranate and Orchid, graft them together to finally create a Death Flower!
Once you’ve successfully grown a Death Flower plant, harvest it and keep the Death Flower on your Sim.
To get a Death Flower, your Sim needs a medium Gardening skill. Prepare to graft different plants!
This isn’t the only way to get a Death Flower. You can randomly find one while fishing or in rare seed packets. Regardless, it’s hard to get one, but not impossible.
However you get hold of one, keep a Death Flower on your Sim, and when the Grim Reaper makes an appearance, hand the Flower over to him. He’ll graciously accept it and let the dead Sim live once again. Death Flowers are also a required ingredient for the Gourmet dish Ambrosia. This special dish brings a ghost back to life when they eat it!
Disappointing Parents
One angst of a teenager is falling out with their parents or feeling like they’ve let them down. Teen Sims can realize this fear if they have one too many bad interactions with them.
If your teen has this fear and is seriously worried about disappointing their parents, then simply get them to Discuss Fears with their parents. This fear should soon disappear.
Children can get reassurance from their parents if they’re worried about disappointing them.
Failing After-School Activities
Although they don’t pay your Sim, unlike part-time jobs, after-school activities can be rewarding. Your Sim gets to hang out with other teens their age in some fun activities. However, sometimes these activities can go sour, and create some fears of going to their after-school activity.
If your Sim is no longer enjoying an after-school activity, you can either quit, or you can get past that fear. Just go off to your Sim’s activity while in a Confident mood and their fears should soon go away.
Failing Class
Tests are important, but so are classes, and failing them isn’t great. So much that failing a class can trigger a fear of them, or at least failing them.
Sims can fail classes if they don’t do the work, or if they don’t bother to show up to class or school.
If you want your Sim to get over the fear of failing any classes, just send them to class and work hard while in a Confident mood.
There are a few fears based around school and failing. Being confident and successful are the key components to banishing any school-related fears.
Failing Tests
Tests play a big part in a teen Sim’s time at school. Passing or failing a test can make a lot of difference. Doing very well in tests means that your Sims can finish high school early! Failing tests isn’t such a great feeling though, and this can lead to your teen getting a fear of failing tests.
Overcoming this fear is pretty obvious: just pass the next test your teen has while Confident. Tests take place every Friday at high school and are separate to homework that your teen gets every school day. To study, you can select the option Study for Exams under the High School option in the self-interaction social menu. Studying takes time, so make sure you don’t leave it to the last minute! There’s also a study session after school during the week, which is very useful. If you haven’t yet studied and have time to attend, you should. The study session doesn’t take very long and you’ll be sure to be ready for your next exam.
Failure
Failure, or belief of failure, isn’t a good feeling, and that can develop into a fear for your Sims.
A Fear of Failure can be caused by poor performance in your Sim’s career, if their performance is marked below the yellow range on the meter and they’re at threat of being demoted or fired. Failure can also become a fear if your Sim produces shoddy handmade work, such as poor quality paintings or woodwork. Even poorly made meals can trigger this fear.
There are a few ways to get over a Fear of Failure. Create some better quality work (at least Normal) and use the interaction Show it Off on another Sim. Another fear-busting move is by going to work and selecting the option Ask for Performance Review.
Sims floundering at work or producing shoddy handmade work can realise a fear of failure. Reassurance is what they need.
Fire
Fires can be a nasty business. They can even kill your Sim if they get caught on fire and don’t get extinguished in time. It’s no wonder that a Fear of Fire can arise by such a traumatic experience.
Fires are normally caused when your Sim is cooking at a low skill level. They can also happen if objects are placed too near a lit fireplace. There’s quite a number of causes for a fire, and they can catch you and your Sims off-guard. Having fire alarms and systems in place can be a real lifesaver, and if not, you can put out the flames yourself. Fires can be traumatic to your Sims though, plummeting their Hygiene and giving them negative Moodlets, plus the cost of replacing damaged items.
If your Sim does develop a Fear of Fire, the only way to conquer it is to confront it. Your Sim must extinguish a fire. Extinguishing a fire should extinguish their fear.
Cooking at a low skill level is a common cause for fires.
Ghosts
Ghosts can be terrifying, to the point that your Sims develop a fear of them. Deceased Sims can come back to haunt properties, including your Sim’s own lot, if an urn or tombstone is present. Ghosts can wreck havoc, creating messes and breaking objects, plus giving your Sims a nasty scare. This can sometimes lead to a Fear of Ghosts.
If your fearful Sim has been menaced by a ghost, they must confront them by engaging them in a fight. With this fear active, wait for a ghost to present themselves, and then get into a Fight with them. It must be a full-on Fight, not just a Shove or other physical interaction. Also, it doesn’t have to be the same ghost that frightened your Sim. Any ghost will do.
Ghosts aren’t always very friendly and can give your Sim a nasty scare.
Homework
Homework is such a drudge for anyone, the same in The Sims 4. It’s something that can’t be avoided though, and one of those things that has to be done even if you don’t like it. You could choose to ignore homework and not do it, but at the risk of getting a fear of it. Also, if you have the Parenthood Game Pack, creating poor quality school projects can also make your Sim realize this fear.
To overcome your Sim’s hatred of homework, just get them to do it while they’re Confident. Homework will still be a chore, but less so without the fear.
Homework is bad enough without having a fear of it. Doing it is the best way to beat it.
Swimming
Swimming is a fun activity, and a great way for your Sim to get into shape. However, swimming without caution can be dangerous. Sims who go swimming with low Energy are in danger of drowning, a nasty way to die. Sims can survive drowning, but it can leave a mark on them in the form of a Fear of Swimming.
Overcoming this fear is pretty easy. You just need to send your Sim back into the water while they are Confident.
If swimming is your Sim’s fear, get them back into the water with confidence.
Unfulfilled Dreams
A lack of attention on completing your Sim’s Wants can develop into a Fear of Unfulfilled Dreams.
It’s quite simple to get over this fear. Just get your Sim to successfully complete any Want, then use the interaction Discuss Fears with another Sim.
Complete any active Want and then Discuss Fears with another Sim to reassure your unhappy Sim.
Final Tips on Fears
- Your Sims can live with fears, but they can be a pain, putting your Sim in a negative mood, sometimes for hours. It’s best to deal with them rather than ignore them.
- With most fears, Confidence is key. Most fears have to be overcome while your Sim is Confident. Getting into the Confident mood is quite easy. You can use a mirror and use the interaction Psych Self Up, which makes your Sim Confident for a few hours. There’s also a potion in the Rewards Store that makes you Confident for a while. When attempting to overcome a fear, get into the Confident mood before doing any of the fear-busting activities.
- Most of the fears in The Sims 4 are conquered by confronting them head-on, whether it’s tests or the dark. If you’re striving to overcome a fear, confront it rather than avoid it.
- You’ll get notified whenever your Sim develops a fear, and it will be listed in red in the Traits panel.
- Keep an eye on your Sims and and their mood. Learn what triggers certain fears so you can avoid getting them in the future. Look out for negative moods such as Tense, Uncomfortable and Scared. Being in these moods while doing certain activities can cause fears.
That’s everything you need to know about fears in The Sims 4. Let us know what fear you most commonly get in the game and whether it’s easy or hard to conquer them.
